Prompt
Company research brief
Before you spend time applying, get a clear-eyed decision brief — what they do, financial health, culture signals, and a plain-language "dig deeper or move on."
job search
The part that makes it actually useful
The prompt has a section called "I care about" — and that's the part that does the real work. A generic company research brief is just Wikipedia with opinions. One that filters against your actual criteria tells you something useful.
Take a few minutes before you run this for the first time to think about what you genuinely care about. Not what sounds good — what has actually made or broken a job for you. Financial stability? Remote culture that's real, not walking it back? Whether the PM role is a builder or a backlog manager? Write those down. Put them in the prompt. Leave them in every time.
What you might care about — some examples
These are examples to prompt your thinking, not a default list to copy. Replace them with what's actually true for you.
Culture & structure
- Remote culture — is it real or walking it back?
- Flat-ish structure, low bureaucracy
- Builder culture vs. process culture
- Founder still involved and thinks like a builder
Financial health
- Funded, profitable, or concerning signals?
- Recent layoffs or hiring freezes
- Post-acquisition integration risk
- Runway concerns for early-stage companies
Role & product
- PMs are builders, not backlog managers
- Ownership language in job descriptions
- Product direction I'd want to build in
- Team size and reporting structure
Other signals
- Leadership stability — recent exec turnover?
- Glassdoor patterns (take with a grain of salt)
- How they talk about their product publicly
- Whether they're hiring or contracting
💡 on your resume
Having your resume in the chat gives the AI useful context about your level, background, and experience — which sharpens the brief and makes the "should she dig deeper" bottom line more relevant to you specifically. Not required, but worth it. Paste it in or upload it before running the prompt.
Research a company called [Company Name] (find the right URL if there are multiple). I'm a senior [your role/title] evaluating whether this is a good fit to pursue. Give me a decision brief covering:
- What they actually do and who their customers are
- Business model and funding/financial health
- Recent news or signals about company direction
- What their product and engineering culture looks like based on job postings or public content
- Any yellow or red flags for a [your role] coming in at [your level]
- A one paragraph "should I dig deeper or move on" bottom line
I care about: [your criteria here — e.g. remote culture, flat-ish structure, whether PMs are builders or backlog managers, financial stability]
Amber text = swap this out for your own details
Making it your own — an example variation
The criteria section is the obvious customization, but you can also add or swap out the bullet points in the brief itself. Here's an example of what that looks like for someone in a product role who wants a deeper read on the product itself — not just the company:
Add this bullet:
- What their core product actually does — a plain-language explanation of the product itself, key features, who uses it day to day, and where it appears to be heading based on recent releases, job postings, or public roadmap signals
Adjust the bottom line to include:
...and whether the product direction is somewhere I'd want to build.
A few things worth knowing
The brief is only as good as what's publicly available. For early-stage or private companies, there may not be much — and that itself is a signal worth noting.
The bottom line is an opinion based on public information. It's a starting point for your own judgment, not a replacement for it. Use it to decide whether to spend more time, not whether to accept an offer.
Run it again before an interview. Companies change fast — a brief you ran three months ago may be missing something important. Takes two minutes to refresh.
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